


Preservation

by Missy



Category: Re-Animator (1985)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Friends to Lovers, Horror, Humor, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Resurrection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 09:51:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2846714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the unfortunate Bride incident, Herbert comes up with a solution to Dan's misery and their financial problems.  But when Dan finds out what Herbert's been hiding in a Cambridge basement he's going to need more than forgiveness on his side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Preservation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wilde_Shade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wilde_Shade/gifts).



“Daniel, if you’re going to spend the entire evening moping I’m going to retreat into the wanted section.”’

Dan Cain rose from his seat and turned very, very slowly toward Herbert West. For the millionth time since he’d met the doctor Dan wished he’d rejected West’s request for room and board all those months ago back at Miskatonic. By Dan’s count, Herbert now owed him five rooms, a bathroom, a garage, a new cat and two girlfriends. Whatever the peevish little doctor had to say at this point he was quite willing to tune out. “I’m sorry I’m in such a terrible mood,” he said dryly. “It must be because I don’t have….hmmm….anything but the clothes on my back!” 

Dan glowered and watched the world speed by as the T rushed its way to Cambridge, where Dan had relatives willing to put him up during his ‘most unexpected and trying time’, to quote his uncle.

Herbert sighed and crisply rustled the paper into shape before folding it over. “Oh fine, sulk like a child. I suppose you won’t even be interested in my latest experiment. Especially when it’s a gesture of gratitude done to thank you for your esteem and faith.” He reached for the Salvation Army overcoat Dan had filched for him when the Red Cross had seen to their needs after the disaster. “There’s no need to contrive an excuse. I know what this is really about,” he declared. 

“Yes, you know everything,” Dan muttered.

“It’s because that Francesca woman decided to part ways with you, isn’t it?” Herbert shook his head, sighed. “You know there are a thousand women on this green earth who come up to her level, you’ll find another. I could understand if she were another Megan...”

That nearly broke Dan, and he grabbed Herbert by the lapels and shook him. “Don’t you dare bring up Meg’s name!”

“I…fine. I won’t bring her up.” But Herbert’s expression suggested there was a ‘for now’ attached to that statement. Dan released him and Herbert tugged on his tie. “I’ll contact you at your Uncle’s home when I’ve completed my work for the evening. Presently, I have work to complete – but I’ll be in touch, Daniel.”

Herbert straightened his glasses, his jaw setting determinedly. As he patted his front pocket and made for the exit Dan swore he saw something glowing, neon-intense, within the cloth bounds.

*** 

Dan’s uncle was kind, but not precisely the sharpest man in the world. He’d inherited most of the family’s wealth, as his enormous but stately brick townhouse at the foot of Coolidge Corner attested to. Dan made it through dinner but dropped, exhausted, into bed at the first opportunity. Nightmares came to haunt him soon afterward, but he was too exhausted to let them wake him, and soon they dissolved into insubstantial mush as his body and mind took a long, deep, restful slumber.

He woke eight hours later to the sound of a rock ticking firmly against his portrait window. Half-awake, Dan inched toward the window, pulled the sash and discovered Herbert standing in the semi-darkness, trying to get his attention.

Dan pulled the window all the way open. “You could have knocked,” he drawled.

Herbert flushed. “It’s late and I wished to cause as small a disturbance as possible.”

“By acting out a scene from a John Hughes movie?”

“It got the desired result, Daniel. Please come down, I have something marvelous to show you.”

Herbert’s idea of what constituted the word ‘marvelous’ was a far different from Dan’s; but for some reason he found himself quickly dressing and heading out the back door. “I trust that this will be worth it,” Dan said.

“Indeed it will. Follow me, the lab’s only a few blocks away.”

“I still don’t believe you’ve already established an active lab,” said Dan.

“Every good scientist is careful to keep two,” declared Herbert. “I wanted assurance that if anything happened to Miskatonic I’d be able to start again as quickly as possible.

“And that place just happen to be in Cambridge?” Dan let out a dry chuckle. “This is all too convenient!”

“And convenience was my objective,” said Herbert. He led Dan up a dank alley to a squat, nondescript building near a quarter laundry and unlocked the back door. They took a flight of steps to the basement, and the scent of formaldehyde wrapped around Dan’s senses like a wool blanket. They traveled to a steel platform, a shrouded body with a myriad of tubes poking out from beneath a starched white sheet. 

“Oh Herbert. What have you done now?”

Herbert raised an eyebrow. “Nothing yet, Daniel. But I assure you that if this goes well we’ll be legendary – we’ll have broken down the wall between death and life! Conquered mortality itself.”

Dan cared less about glory and more about whatever paper trail Herbert had left behind. “Where did you get the body?”

Herbert looked guilty. “It’s not of your concern,” he said coolly. Then he reached into the front pocket of his raincoat and pulled out a hypo filled with reagen. 

Dan cringed. “Again with your ooze?”

“I’ve made a number of adjustments to the mixture,” Herbert declared. “Our patient should be just fine.”

“OUR patient?” he wondered. 

Herbert injected the reagent into one of the tubes. Silence filled the room. Only the drip of an IV sounded in the background. 

Then the lump under the sheet began to move. 

Dan started, ducking behind Herbert as the body jackknifed into a sitting position. That shifted the sheet down to its waist, and revealed a face that nearly caused Dan to burst into tears. 

“My God – my God, Meg!” 

“Aren’t you happy, Daniel? Reunited at last with your little girlfriend…” 

Meg didn’t appear to feel the same way about the reunion. She seemed frightened, disorientated, and tried to scramble down off the slab – in the process disconnecting every tube shoved into her body. 

“How did you save her body?! I was told it was burnt beyond repair in the Miskatonic fire.”

“Oh Daniel,” chuckled Herbert. “Morgues don’t burn,” he reminded his friend. “I simply kept Megan’s body on ice until I felt fully confident that I could resurrect her. “ Dan had heard enough – of course morgues don’t burn, he’d hosed down the smoldering ashes of one himself. But in the end he’d come away from the last little experiment soaking wet from helping the fight the fires that had sprouted up and down the block thanks to West’s creations. 

“But her heart!”

“Was still in the Bride’s hand. Perfectly intact. I just salvaged it in a jar and fixed it.” 

Herbert then bent over his creation. “Megan? Can you hear me?” asked Herbert. “If you can, speak, speak for us!”

“H-H…” started Meg.

“Yes!” encouraged Herbert. “SPEAK! Speak now!”

“Her-,” Meg sputtered. Then her eyes filled with light. “Herbert. I am going to STRANGLE you!”

Herbert shook his head. “Same MO. Looks like we’ll have to..” But Meg jumped to her feet and started pacing, her arms waving furiously in the air. 

“I was in heaven! There wasn’t pain! The sun was bright…I was with my mother and you pulled me away!” She glared at Dan. “Was this your idea?”

“I didn’t even know you were intact,” Dan said.

“Intact? INTACT?!” she glared at Herbert, then lunged for him.

“Meg, Meg,” soothed Dan as Herbert cowered behind him. “You need to rest! I don’t want you to hurt yourself!”

“I feel fine! I could walk to Mars! But I’m not sure I’m grateful for it!” Then she realized both men were gawking at her – at the nudity she’d accidentally uncloaked. She crossed her arms over her breasts and glared. “Dan, I want to go home.”

He didn’t have the courage to tell her that whatever home they’d established was long gone, but Herbert, as always, had an answer. “Take her home, by all means – test her out, make sure the reagent will work. I’ll stay here and start the process of mass-production!” Herbert nearly danced his glee. “We’ll be millionaires! GODS!” 

“I met God,” Meg said, as Dan grabbed the fallen sheet and wrapped it around her body. “And you aren’t Him!”

Dan gently scooped her up, urging her to stay calm. He wouldn’t, couldn’t, lose her precious soul now.

*** 

Dan made tea in his uncle’s kitchen, finding Meg an old sweater and jeans for her to wear. She muttered her thanks and sipped the brew while Dan watched her cautiously to make sure she wouldn’t reject it. Which it – her own body, her own soul – she didn’t know.

“I’m fine, Dan.” 

He fell to his knees in front of her, his head coming to rest in her lap. Her hand patted him lightly – he felt warmth, was amazed by it, wondered how her circulatory system had been ravaged. 

“I love you.” She nearly dropped the cup. “I needed to say it, just in case. I want to be with you forever, Meg.”

“Do you really love me?” she murmured, sounding lost, like a little girl.

“Since I first laid eyes on you,” he admitted.

“Do you love me the same way you love him?” Meg asked flatly. Dan was taken aback. “You love him, Dan. Why else would you go to all of this trouble?”

“Because if I don’t Herbert will hurt himself. Or somebody else. He hurt you…”

“…You went off with him. You were partners, Dan – I saw it all. Or did you forget that I could?”

Dan cringed. “How could I love somebody like him?”

“Because you’re the light to his dark. And you’re very good at taking care of people.” 

She finished her tea. “We should go back to the lab and make sure he hasn’t blown up half of Cambridge.”

Dan kissed the back of her hand. “You are infinitely giving, infinitely precious….”

“No. I’m just me, Dan.” 

“But that’s enough,” he told her.

And together they headed back to the laboratory. 

*** 

Herbert wasn’t fine, of course. He’d tried the new reagent formula on a rat and managed to breed a super-intelligent, super-vicious animal. It took the three of them the rest of the night to trap and dispose of it.

Afterwards, Meg and Dan collapsed onto the slab. “Next time, Herbert,” Meg said, leaning against Dan’s shoulder like Ginger Rodgers coaxing a swain at the Hollywood Canteen, “buy a dog.”

Herbert watched the two of them cuddle together, pushing back his glasses with a protracted sigh. “I suppose I should leave the two of you to your…business.” He said, his lip curling in distaste.

Meg and Dan looked at one another. Then she approached him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “What if you stay?” she asked. 

“Stay?” alarm crossed his features. “Certainly you don’t expect me to…” she kissed his neck. “To..” he sputtered. “Daniel, control your woman,” he demanded, his voice a shriek. His pale face broke into a bright red blush, even, a satisfying and bright-red blush.

“Herbert, my dear,” Dan drawled, “you talk too much.”

**

It turned out that it wasn’t difficult keeping both of them entertained. Meg was still a sweet girl, but she was also a voracious little minx. Herbert could barely keep up. DAN could barely keep up, and he had love on his side. Soon her little scratch marks appear like badges of victory upon Herbert’s neck. And night after night he found himself occupying their bed, planning what would happen in the bed, hoping to do good – and dipping their toes in the bad every single time.


End file.
